As a teacher, you know that regular communication with parents is critical to the success of your students.

Communicating frequently is essential, but you don't have to meet with parents every month or even contact them at home. Instead, try sending parents a monthly class newsletter that highlights the activities and events going on in your classroom. You can also send home Good News! reports if one of your students does something outstanding.

Parent-teacher conferences are also an important way of involving parents. A conference gives you time to meet with parents in person and to discuss any issues that might have come up. Creating a Conference Record to document feedback from the meeting is useful so that parents remember what was discussed during the conference and what to follow up with at home.

The following links take you to the tools and information you need to engage with parents successfully.

Communicate regularly

Keep parents informed.

• Develop positive relationships with parents (Article)
  Ensure a successful school year.
• Use Publisher to create a class newsletter (Article)
  Create a newsletter quickly and easily.
• Classroom newsletter (2-col., 2-pp.) (Template)
  Create and send out a classroom newsletter to keep parents up to date.
• Good news report (Template)
  Create and send out a report to inform parents about their child's outstanding accomplishments.

Parent-teacher conferences

Make your conferences a success.

• Successful parent-teacher conferences (Article)
  Support students by creating a strong connection with parents.
• Conference record (Template)
  Create a form to record feedback during your conferences.